“They should let us do Sparrow racing!” said practically every person who ever played Destiny for more than a few hours. The meat of the game might be shooting things in the face, but it’s attached to the bones of the open world areas through which you travel on an all to regular basis. Exploring those locations on the back of a hoverbike was one of the game’s simple joys, helping to alleviate some of the boredom while adding momentum and pace to the otherwise dull and monotonous task of farming for spirit blooms on Venus.
Thankfully, the need to go on patrol has waned since the game’s earliest days – unless, of course, you’ve yet to complete your exotic sword quests – but there’s still an allure to zipping from place to place on the nippy, lightweight Sparrows. Yet, while other parts of the game and a player’s loadout advanced with the launch of The Taken King, it’s only now that the humble Sparrow is given the same treatment, in the Sparrow Racing League.
Of course, the Sparrow Racing League is really just starting out, with only two tracks for Guardians to go racing on. Mars and Venus have one track each, set in the heart of enemy territory. As you weave through the altered landscape, Vex, Fallen, Cabal and Taken are present to hamper you however they can, bringing to mind the little Jawa snipers from the racing sequence in Star Wars Episode I.
As the lights went out on my first race, I died instantly, suffering a moment of sheer panic as I thought to myself, “How on Earth do I fly a Sparrow again?” in spite of the game showing me the buttons and the hundreds of hours I’ve spent with the game. Hopping off your sparrow sees you die, and loses you valuable time as you have to respawn, but there’s plenty of opportunities to catch up.
The two tracks are scattered with boost gates which you need to fly through in order to succeed, which is a little reminiscent of Wipeout, as is the presentation of the race intro. There are a handful of shortcuts which will skip past a gate or two, but by and large you’ll be sticking to the racing line that Bungie have drawn out. Quite cleverly, the closer to the lead you are, the smaller the gates get, forcing you to become increasingly precise if you want to hit them each time.
That’s easier said than done, because Sparrows will very easily bobble and bounce around on the track. Stray a little off the ideal line and you’re in grave danger of clipping the corner of a wall or catching a little rock in ever-so-slightly the wrong way, losing all the momentum you had at that point. It’s a big part of why those racing in close proximity to each other will slow you down, and why it can be difficult to chase down the leader, particularly if they’re calmly nipping from one gate to the next.
It’s quite a lot of fun though, and I’m looking forward to seeing how peoples’ racing evolves over the course of the three week SRL event. As people start to unlock the newer, cooler looking sparrows, they’ll quickly hop into the sleeker racing gear, which is all totally cosmetic, but most importantly, they’ll start to find the optimum route through these tracks.
Getting your hands on the loot is pretty simple. Completing five races gets you a re-skinned version of the basic Sparrow, but the next quest stage will net you legendary pieces of armour, and the first few races were already quite generous with armour and Sparrow horns for me.
But perhaps the most interesting thing about this event is what it says for the future of Destiny and the rest of Year Two. The House of Wolves-style expansion packs seem to be done and dusted, just as Kotaku reported a few weeks ago, and in their place are fairly regular special events, supported financially by microtransactions.
In addition to the main quest line, you can buy an SRL Record Book from the Eververse Store, which will track your Sparrow racing achievements, as well as open new objectives to complete in order to unlock fancier looking gear. True to their word, these seem to be purely cosmetic items, with the same kit available elsewhere, just in a different colour scheme or style.
Sparrow Racing League is a nice and fun addition, but one that hides and masks a little disappointment. On a personal level, I’ve barely played Destiny for the past month, which stands in stark contrast to my playing habits a year ago, and the optimism I had for the longevity of The Taken King back in September.
Admittedly, I’m in the minority of the game’s players who have seen practically every part of the game, but I don’t feel myself being drawn back to the game as much or feeling excitement for the next big thing, quite simply because it’s always kept so secret.
Tuffcub
They really need to add weapons, the first minute or so just has has everyone jostling about and pushing. I didn;t think it was much fun to be honest, the tracks are rather dull and far too long.
Tony Cawley
Had 3 races, came 1st, 6th, 6th. Win or lose only for me it seems.
I quite enjoyed it but it’s definitely a very brief distraction, doesn’t have much longevity to it.
In terms of the full update, they’ve ruined pvp, it’s awful. Nobody even attempts to use a primary weapon any more, everyone just runs around with 1,000 yard bloody stare and it’s horrible.
Forrest_01
This kind of echoes my recent experience with PVP – Get the wrong map for certain game modes & unless you are rocking a sniper yourself (which I actually don’t like to do, as I prefer to battle it out, not be handing out or be on the receiving end of OHKO’s), you pretty much have no chance. Long sightlines populate quite a few of the newer maps & you can easily find yourself at the mercy of getting a metre outside of spawn before being mercilessly hacked down in one shot.
100 yard stare is certainly not the only culprit, but it is definitely most prevalent.
Back on topic, haven’t even tried racing yet. Doesn’t really appeal to me much (if I want to race, I would likely stick on a racing game!), but I do like the fact that they have responded to user requests, albeit a bit too late perhaps.